Sunday, January 17, 2010

Let's play catch-up

Can you believe I've been VOLUNTARILY internetless for 2 weeks? Yeah, me either. But I have, and it's done me the world of good.

So let's play catch-up now.

End of holidays were a bit of a downer as G went back to work a week before me, leaving me with the two kids every day. Hmm... it was tougher than it looks! But I still managed to squeeze in a visit to a friend whose baby was born 5 weeks prem, clean out Nathan and Janel's closets (and all the stored baby clothes) and bag anything we're either not going to use or have no sentimental value in keeping, do some work in the garden, and read a book or ten.

I'm really impressed with myself that I managed to read this holiday. In 10 days I managed to get through about 8 books, I think (I've lost track). To me, reading is nearly as good as eating chocolate. I don't just read books, I devour them, preferably in one sitting.

My best read of the summer was a Harlen Corben novel "No second chance". It kept me riveted right up to the last page... and it kept surprising me. Fabulous read! Second place goes to "Harm Done" by Ruth Rendell. A good read, if you like that kind of thing (which I do, so I did).

Nathan... well, you have to see him to believe him. He's honestly just too cute for words. On Friday night, at a staff function, he entertained a few of us for about 20 minutes, till I was laughing so much there were tears running down my face. He really is such a happy child. I just keep thinking that this must be God's way of trying to make up for Zoe.

Still no sign of his teeth, though, despite all the drooling and chewing on everything in sight. He's nearly crawling now: up on all fours, wobbling backwards and forwards. He can get his knees up under him, and he can get his hands to move forward, but he just can't co-ordinate the two together into a forwards motion.

Janel is now one of the "big children" at her nursery school. There are only about 5 of them in her age group this year, so she is thrilled with her new role as her teacher's helper. She is thriving on responsibility and now constantly asks whether she can help me with anything. I'm thrilled at her new maturity, but don't want it to become a chore. As long as it remains fun, then I'm all for it. She's also come on in leaps and bounds in terms of her swimming. She's now safe to swim on her own (i.e. without one of us actually in the pool with her; not as in without parental presence watching over her), which is a massive relief for me.

Work: all good. I love my job. I have lovely classes, albeit a bit naughty. I have wonderful colleagues. In fact, for some reason this year, although I'm just as busy as in previous years, I'm not feeling particularly stressed by the busy-ness. Does that mean I'm getting wiser, or just lowering my standards? The only cloud on this horizon is that I have to leave Nathan behind. I miss him and it's MUCH worse than last year when I went back after maternity leave. Maybe it's because he's more interactive. Maybe it's because over the holidays he seemed to learn the difference between "Mommy" and other women. Maybe it's because I just loved spending so much time with him....

In fact, as evidence of my new approach to work, I spent all day in the garden today, instead of preparing lessons! I've found a fabulous gardener - today was his first day with me, and he's just brilliant. In one day we've achieved stuff that would have taken me WEEKS to accomplish. My garden is now SORTED. Front and back. For someone who loves order as much as I do, I'm relishing my beautifully tidy, neat and (now) welcoming garden. It's just a delight. In fact, I might even be tempted to spend some time out there just, you know, for FUN (as opposed to being out there because there's all this stuff that has to be done in it...). Now there's a thought. The sad thing is that I know that if I were to post photos, you wouldn't be impressed. That's because you don't know what it was like beforehand and how much of an improvement it is. But I'm impressed, and that's all that matters.

And that's my life. I love my husband. I love my kids. I love my job. I love my life. Hmm... is this heaven? Don't get me wrong, things aren't perfect, but right now, I'm really happy and content. Isn't it amazing what a bit of sunshine, sea, beach, garden and reading will do for one?

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